The Lincoln Project is busy today. Steve Schmidt was on television earlier addressing the issue of Lisa Murkowski “struggling” with the decision to vote for Donald Trump or not. Here’s what he said, and it is music to my ears. Raw Story:
“We saw the president direct violence against peaceful protesters this week, and seen the president lie to the country nearly 20,000 times,” said Schmidt. “We’ve seen the president divide the country and incite violence. And we’ve seen a level of ineptitude in this historic pandemic that defied description, but included standing in front of the nation when tens of thousands are dead, talking about his ratings or telling the American people that it is a good idea to ingest or household disinfectants. We’ve seen a president preside over the shattering of an economy. We have seen a president race-bait, demean, disgrace his office, to desecrate the bonds of affection that exist between us as Americans.”
“He has completely, utterly failed in the execution of his duties,” said Schmidt. “He has attacked our institutions. He has no fondness for liberal democracy. He doesn’t understand the American ideal and idea. And the notion that you would struggle with the question of four more years of this or President Joe Biden is extraordinary to me. I can’t fathom it. I can’t process it.”
“It is the choice between a good man and a bad man,” said Schmidt. “A moral man versus an immoral man. A patriot versus somebody who has desecrated our freedoms and ideals by his assaults on American people. The choice between Trump and Biden isn’t a difficult one. It is a choice between decline and the chance of a restoration and recovery from these tragic events. That is what the election is about. And she shouldn’t be sweating it in the way that she is. It is not a troubling decision. It is an easy one.”
Isn’t that poetry? Couldn’t you just listen to that all night? Especially knowing that it’s coming out of the mouth of a Republican strategist? Oh, how that makes it all the more sweet.
And here’s more from George Conway, publishing in the Washington Post:
So much of Trump’s inaptness and ineptness in these and other matters stems from his exceptional narcissism, and the empathic deficit that attends it. Few who have considered it would today doubt, as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) so perceptively put it in 2016, that Trump was “a narcissist at a level I don’t think this country has ever seen.”
But it’s more than just narcissism that drives this failing, flailing president. However difficult they can be, even extreme narcissists can have consciences. They don’t necessarily cast aside behavioral standards or laws, or lie ceaselessly with reckless abandon. Trump’s behavior is conscienceless, showing utter disregard for the safety of others, consistent irresponsibility, callousness, cynicism and disrespect of other human beings. Contempt for truth and honesty, and for norms, rules and laws. A complete inability to feel remorse, or guilt. As a New Yorker profile of Trump put it nearly a quarter-century ago, Trump lives “an existence unmolested by the rumbling of a soul.” That’s Donald Trump’s problem yesterday, today and tomorrow.
It’s our problem, too, for now: We remain governed by a soulless man with a broken mind. The damage will continue, and it won’t stop until voters end it. Come November, it will be up to the eligible human population of this country to look to their souls, their consciences, their humanity — and to cast their votes for one of their own.
This is very black and white, folks. It can’t get too much simpler. Do you want to vote for the good man or the bad one? Do you want to vote for the human or the severely deficient inhuman? These are no brainer questions.
Boy, I sure wouldn’t want to be the staffer or servant delivering the newspaper when Trump gets wind of this. Or wait — did Trump cancel the Washington Post along with the New York Times? It’s a sure thing that Kellyanne isn’t going to mention what her husband wrote, or what his buddy said earlier in the day. But he’ll get wind of this somehow, and then look out coffee pots and TV sets. Wooot.
Saw Schmidt. He was preaching. I kept thinking, when is going to take a breath.
I don’t think anybody with the Lincoln Project is going to take a breath between now and November 3. And I say “good.”
If we manage to prevail in November I have no doubt Schmidt, Conway and the rest of them won’t even wait until the inauguration to start attacking Biden and the Democratic Party for “going too liberal” but for the moment they are on our side. And I’ll take it. I don’t care if their support is temporary. If it helps us get rid of Trump and key Republicans (especially Senators) who’ve propped him up then I welcome their considerable expertise in attack dog politics. I’ve said many times we need to act like we’re in a biker-bar fight and these guys can bit, gouge and kick better than anyone else. Hell, I even enjoy watching the GOP getting a taste of its own medicine!
I find it funny, Denis, that you think Trump will restrain himself enough between Election Day and Inauguration Day to allow Schmidt and the rest to be looking that hard at Biden. And while I welcome their help now, I give them zero credit for their inability to stop Trump in 2016. These kind of political hired guns are only as effective as the people they back up, which is why they are reluctantly on our side for the time being.
When a preacher man’s on a roll, Blue, we both know that their speech is unstoppable.
All the little chips are showing and he is cracking.
No one knows the underbelly of the Republican party like someone who’s been on the inside. I find myself feeling like kindred spirits when Steve talks. Fascinating.
It helps that we all hate Trump, albeit for differing reasons. To paraphrase Kim Newman in Anno Dracula, no one hates a degenerate conservative more than another conservative. That’s Schmidt’s angle on his hate.
Schmidt’s saying what we’re all thinking. Uncle Joe is our only exit ramp at this point. Anyone toeing Murkowski’s line is just trying to thread the impossible needle, which will profit them nothing. It is my deepest hope that every one of the Trump ass-kissers is persona non grata after this is over.
Well, you can hate on Murkowski, but if she hadn’t prevailed in 2010 as a write-in, then Alaska would have someone who wouldn’t have even had to think about whether to impeach Trump or not. Joe Miller, who won the GOP primary over Murkowski, had been endorsed by Sarah Palin and was a major Teabagger favorite. Then, in 2016, while Murkowski chose to not endorse Trump for President, her Libertarian Party opponent–Joe Miller (yep, the same guy from 2010)–overwhelmingly supported Trump (which led to Bill Weld, the Libertarian Party’s VP candidate, endorsing Murkowski because–according to Weld–Miller’s support for Trump and his extreme social conservatism were completely incompatible with the Libertarian Party’s stance; Miller hadn’t even run as a Libertarian in the primary, being nominated by the Party after the only Libertarian candidate withdrew after the primary was over).
She gets credit for all the above, Joseph, but not a pass. What she has done since has been inexcusable and if my deepest hopes come true, she’s going to have to pay and atone for such. Two contradictory things can be true, after all.
Yeah he canceled both and forbade any utterance of anything written in them in the White House. Curiously, how wood he know what’s written in them without reading them.
The Meidastouch boys are also doing some good work.